Fans who were upset about Uriah’s absence from Divergent are surely looking forward to the character’s debut in Insurgent.

Though he was cut from the first film due to pesky adaptation limits, the character was worked into the highly-anticipated sequel which hits theaters this Friday.

Hypable had the chance to speak with actor Keiynan Lonsdale about his role as Uriah and what it’s been like to jump into the Divergent world.

Being cast for the role

Producers went looking for an actor to play Uriah when they were preparing to shoot Divergent in 2013, but luckily for Lonsdale, they decided not to include the character in the first movie.

“If they did choose to cast him for the first film, then I definitely wouldn’t be here today,” the actor told Hypable. “I was in LA, I was doing auditions, but I wasn’t sent to that audition. I didn’t even know about it at the time. It’s kinda crazy how life works out. If I got to do the first film I would’ve developed the character from there, but it probably wouldn’t have been me.”

Once he had the part (he had to do an audition over Skype with the film’s director because Lonsdale lives in Australia), the actor went digging through the source material. “I watched the first film[, b]ut I hadn’t read the books yet. So once I got cast I read the books.”

The actor admits that those who’ve read the books will notice differences in the adaptation, but Lonsdale thinks they ultimately benefit the film. “There’s a few changes with different elements, the box and the structure of a couple things, but I think that’s going to happen when there’s so many things in the book. It’s almost impossible to properly execute that in a film without making changes. So I think the changes they did make were necessary, and I think they work really well.”

Hitting the set

Lonsdale immediately felt comfortable when he got to the Atlanta-based set, and the first scene he shot ended up being one of his biggest in the movie.

“My first scene was a fight with one of the stunt guys,” Lonsdale told us, referring to a scene where he’s with Tris on a rooftop before chaos breaks out. “So I had a few hours with the stunt coordinators which was awesome and very difficult. I was pretty nervous because it was my first day.”

The actor also spent some time on set with author Veronica Roth, but their topics of conversation focused on life rather than Divergent. “We had a little bit of a chat once I was there in Atlanta and we were filming. It wasn’t so much about the character, it was just more getting to know each other, and she said that there’s a lot of good feedback about Uriah, like getting cast, so that was exciting. I was just hoping she liked me because if Veronica didn’t like me, then… [laughs] I didn’t know whether the fans would. We got along, so that made me happy.”

On director Robert Schwentke

As director of recent action films RED and R.I.P.D., Robert Schwentke is no stranger to bringing huge sequences to life. Although Lonsdale didn’t get to appear in many action sequences, he knows Schwentke was very good at giving Insurgent the punch it needed.

“[Robert’s] just really good at creating these worlds, creating chaos amongst everything,” Lonsdale told us. “That’s what I feel like you see within Tris’ world with Insurgent. It’s just chaotic and almost sad because it’s just so crazy and terrible. There’s so much going on, he really creates a society that’s breaking down in an insane way.”

The fandom and his faction

Joining a fandom as rabid as Divergent’s is a unique experience for Lonsdale. “I’ve never tweeted so much in my life!” he told us. “I find that the fans are all really nice. A lot of the tweets — they were just really appreciative of the fact that I was tweeting them back or retweeting, or doing anything like that at all. So I think they’re all really sweet. They can be pretty crazy too — in a great way.”

Some fans took his new job as Uriah a little too seriously. “When I got cast, there were a few people who were like, ‘I’m so excited but if you mess this up I’m going to come with a knife and hurt you.’ I was like, ‘Okay, alright, sweet…’”

Our last question for Lonsdale was, naturally, which faction he’d want to be in. His choice? Divergent.

“For me personally it feels like it’d be crazy if I had to stick to one [faction]. If I did choose a faction, it would probably be erudite. Not because I’m crazy smart or anything like that, but because I enjoy the idea of knowledge and constantly educating yourself and learning things all the time. So that would be something I could see myself sticking with for the rest of my life.

Lonsdale told us that he hasn’t read the script for Allegiant yet, but he’s excited for filming to begin later this year.

Insurgent hits theaters this Friday, March 20.